JPP Law Blog

Primark must pay transgender employee £47,000 compensation

A transgender employee has won her claim of constructive dismissal after she was forced to resign following a series of discriminatory comments from her colleagues.

Miss Alexandra de Souza E Souza worked as a retail assistant for high street clothing brand Primark.

She was subjected to various bullying comments and actions by several of her colleagues, including being told she had a "man's voice", "had evil inside her" and that she was "a joke".

Miss De Souza was also sprayed with perfume, and had her privacy invaded in the ladies' room when a colleague told a tradesman he could enter to carry out maintenance because there were "no women in there".

Miss De Souza reported the discriminatory behaviour to her superiors, leading Primark's HR team to order the department leader to investigate.

However, Miss De Souza was not informed of the outcome of the investigation or given the opportunity to appeal it.

The harassment continued so Miss De Souza refused to return to work unless Primark addressed the situation.

Eventually, she emailed a resignation letter.

Miss De Souza then took the case to an Employment Tribunal which ruled in her favour.

It found that Primark did not deal properly with the discrimination or harassment she was subjected to on several occasions.

She was awarded £47,433.03 for loss of past and future earnings, loss of pension, interest and injury to feelings.

For further advice on any of the issues raised in this article, or for employment law advice more generally, please contact JPP Law on 020 3468 3064 or email info@jpplaw.co.uk